Arthur Hnatek

Arthur Hnatek (pronounced Na-tek), drummer/composer/electronica artist, is a 27 years old Swiss born, Berlin based, award winner, multi-instrumentalist musician. These days, he is mostly seen drumming with (Nonesuch and ECM artist) Tigran Hamasyan, Erik Truffaz's Quartet and his solo electronica project SWIMS.

He holds a bachelor degree from the New School for Jazz in New York City, where he studied with musicians among Kirk Nurock, Timothy Andres, John Hollenbeck, Robert Sadin and Mark Guiliana. He has travelled all around the world performing prestigious venues among The Montreux Jazz Festival (CH), La Cite de La Musique (Paris,FR), Festival de Vienne (FR), Festival Jazz de Marciac (FR), North Sea Jazz Festival (NLD), Montreal Jazz Festival (CA), the London Jazz Festival (ENG), The Cotton Club of Tokyo (JP), Yoshi's in Oakland (USA) or the Reykjavik Jazz Festival (IS) just to name a few.

On the side of his work as a leader, with Melismetiq, Arthur is an active sideman performing in a variety of styles. He has been seen performing with Tigran Hamasyan Trio or Quintet, Erik Truffaz Quartet, Shai Maestro Trio, Dhafer Youssef, Donny McCaslin, Linda Oh, Gregoire Maret, Dan Tepfer Trio, Sophie Hunger, Florian Favre Trio, John Patitucci, Guillaume Perret, Franky Rousseau Big Band, Nate Wood Band just to name a few.

As an electronica artist, he has produced remixes for Manu Delago (Bjork), Tigran (Road Song EP), Eclecta, Matthieu Llodra Trio and Erik Truffaz among others. His project SWIMS debuts with a first EP in October 2017 on Susan Records.

As a composer, he has written for orchestra, string quartets, chamber ensemble, big bands and small ensembles. Commissions have been received from the Puplinge Classique Festival (in 2013: Now for septet and piano), the Jeunesse Musicale of Switzerland (in 2014, Noèse for jazz trio and orchestra), the Geneva Brass Festival (2015, Postface for big band and brass quintet) and L'Orchestre Quipasseparlà in 2017.

In 2016, Arthur conducts the DKSJ Swiss All-Star Project and leads a band of 11 musicians around the country performing his latest suite Lualuna Tai. This music can be found on his bandcamp page

Arthur has worked as a film composer on numerous occasions. Recently, he scored Pierre Amstutz Roch's short movie To Be Delivered Other facts:

Arthur is the ambassador for the "Sport et Arts" branch of the Geneva department for education, that supports young students with great abilities. Find out more

Arthur has won twice, in 2006 and 2007, the swiss drum contest held in Altishofen (CH). At age 16, he was granted a scholarship to study at the Drummer's Collective in New York for a summer semester.

In 2009, Arthur received a number of scholarships. Among them, he was one of the 8 swiss artists to be granted by the the Leenaards Foundation. Both the Gerber-Stiftung and the Lyra Foundation also awarded Arthur, encouraging him in his move to New York.

In February 2013, Arthur and his collaborative group formed by other students in New York, win a competition sponsored by Louis Vuitton based on a piece for dance, music and fashion design.

In September 2013, Arthur puts out the arc lite suite, his first full length album featuring his compositions for large ensemble.